How to Travel As a Vegetarian

Sticking to a vegetarian diet while traveling can be challenging. You can make travel easier by planning ahead. Picking a vegetarian-friendly destination, learning how to communicate your dietary needs in the local language, and packing vegetarian-friendly snacks will help you stick to your diet. Once you arrive at your destination, try using restaurant apps or guidebooks to locate vegetarian fare or consider booking a room with kitchen access to cook your own grub.

Method 1 - Planning Ahead

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→ Choose a vegetarian-friendly destination. You might not always be able to choose your travel destinations, especially if you are traveling for work or with others. If you do, however, have a say in where you go, pick a place where the fare is vegetarian-friendly. For example, India, Thailand, and Israel are known as vegetarian-friendly destinations due to religious restrictions as well as high numbers of vegetarian citizens.

→ Do some online research to find out what locations are vegetarian-friendly.

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→ Learn the lingo. You will need to be able to communicate your dietary needs to restaurant and airline staff during your travels. You should be able to ask, “Is this dish vegetarian?” and say, “I am a vegetarian” in the local language. You should also learn the local words for fish, chicken, beef, and pork. This will help you easily glance over a menu and eliminate dishes with these ingredients.

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→ Request a vegetarian in-flight meal. If the airline on which you are traveling provides in-flight meals, it is important that you request a vegetarian option long before you board the flight. In many cases, you will be given meal options when you book your flight. If not, contact the airline directly and make sure they will be able to provide you with a vegetarian meal during your flight.

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→ Research restaurants before you arrive. Traveling while vegetarian will be much easier if you take the time to research restaurants in your travel destination before you arrive. Peruse guidebooks, talk to friends who previously traveled to the destination, and do some online research. Make a list of restaurants you will visit along with their addresses and hours of operation.

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→ Pack vegetarian-friendly snacks. Sometimes travel doesn’t go as planned. You might end up stranded in an airport or searching for a vegetarian restaurant only to find it is closed! You can avert disaster by packing portable vegetarian foods like nuts, protein bars, dried fruit, or nut butter.

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→ Figure out how to tactfully decline non-vegetarian food. There is a good chance that someone will offer you non-vegetarian food on your travels. Learn how to tactfully decline the offer using the local language and taking local customs into account. Learn to say, “Thank you, but I do not eat meat,” in the local language. If you speak the same language as the host or server, you can also explain why you do not eat meat.

→ If you are afraid of offending the host or server, you can always accept the food and give it to your travel partner or to someone in need.

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→ Pack over-the-counter medicines. Bring over-the-counter medicines from home with you, like Tums or Pepto Bismol. That way, you’ll have them on hand in case you accidentally consume a dish that contains meat and it upsets your stomach. Other foreign or new foods may also cause stomach problems, so it’s a good idea to bring the medicine that gives you the most relief.

Method 2 - Finding Vegetarian Fare at Your Travel Destination

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→ Try a vegetarian restaurant app. You can find vegetarian options in your travel destination with the help of an app designed with vegetarians in mind. Apps like Happy Cow will recommend vegetarian restaurants as well as meat-serving restaurants that offer good vegetarian options. You can also use an app like Foursquare, which flags restaurants as vegetarian-friendly.

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→ Give street food a chance. In many places, street food is vegetarian. This means there might be multiple vegetarian dinner options available from street vendors. Take, for example, Central America. In Guatemala, you can get a cheap, delicious vegetarian options like papusas, empanadas, and rellenitos in most cities.

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→ Book a room with kitchen access. Cooking your own food means you will have control over the ingredients and can rest assured your meals are vegetarian. Try booking a hotel, hostel, or homestay that will give you access to a kitchen. Look for one near a market or grocery store to make shopping as effortless as possible.

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→ Try a translation app. If you are traveling to a foreign country, you will undoubtedly come across menu items with which you are unfamiliar. Try using a digital translator, like Google Translate, iTranslate, or Waygo, to help you decode the dish and its ingredients. This might very well save you from an unintended mouthful of meat!